Part of our founding vision for Oxford Community Church (the church was started in 1984) was to connect with and serve students, seeing them 'infected' (a term that hasn't dated well, post-pandemic!) with a passion for the Kingdom of God, and determined to spend their lives serving God wherever he would take them. After uni, students from both universities find themselves in different nations/workplaces/communities where they can play their part for God as his ambassadors, contributing to his plan for the renewal of all things. We want to play our part in helping that happen!

A city like Oxford is for many is a stepping stone of education and early career development, with high population turnover. A city church like OCC will reflect this population turnover of the city. But with our 'apostolic vision' for God's world, we see that turnover as an opportunity, not a threat! 

A few years back I was talking to a friend about a particular city in the UK. We both knew undergraduate students in this city, and we were lamenting the lack of churches who were willing to nurture, train and disciple students. While churches in the city were happy for students to serve on rotas, there was a 'glass ceiling' in terms of their development as disciples and as leader. 

We hope you're having a fantastic holiday so far! If you're a fresher who's investigating OCC, if you're away from home for a while, or if we don't have your address, then you won't have had the actual letter that we sent out about a week ago. What follows is the letter we sent out (minus the exciting goodies).

Over the last 3 weeks I've had the opportunity and privilege of serving one of the national families of churches in our Salt & Light international family. Along with 2 other leaders from the UK, we've been helping them think about the shift to a more missional culture in their churches. As part of that I presented the following 'P's of leading transition in the church: